1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the delivery of messages in communication networks. More specifically, the present invention is directed to systems and methods that permit the delivery of audio-only Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages to intended recipients via an alternate mechanism when a recipient device does not have the capability of directly processing MMS messages.
2. The Relevant Technology
The popularity of all types of devices, such as mobile telephones and hybrid devices such as “smart phones” that combine the functionality of mobile telephones with that of personal digital assistants (hereinafter referred to generally as devices) is undeniable. People want or need to communicate using voice while they are mobile. At the same time, the use of text messaging is also rising such that virtually any device on a 2G or 3G network can receive a Short Message Service (SMS) message. While text messaging using protocols such as SMS is somewhat popular, voice is still the preferred way to communicate when using a device, since using the keypad of such devices to input and send text messages can be cumbersome and time consuming. Voice messages are more convenient because they can be easily created and they take advantage of the native ability of devices to receive and output audio data.
Conventional voicemail systems provide the capability for anyone to leave a voicemail message after a telephone call has failed to reach the intended recipient. Using a conventional voicemail system to deliver a voice message to the recipient, a sender typically first must dial the recipient's telephone number in an attempt to reach the recipient “live” and then fail to do so, whereupon the voicemail system intercedes to allow a voice message to be recorded. In many cases, callers hoping to be able to leave a non-intrusive voice message instead interrupt the intended recipient. While conventional voicemail systems represent a convenient adjunct to direct telephone communication between a caller and a recipient, they often do not allow voice messages to be created and sent by senders without first making an attempt to establish a live telephone conversation with the recipient.
Another technology, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), allows senders with MMS-enabled devices to send multi-media messages, including voice messages, to other MMS-enabled devices. A user of an MMS-enabled device may alternatively send MMS-based voice messages to a website where they can be retrieved by the recipients. While this alternative may be occasionally acceptable, the use of a web browser to retrieve a voice message is inconvenient for the recipient when he does not have access to a web browser, and is cumbersome compared to the use of telephones to access voice messages. The proliferation of MMS-compatible devices has been and continues to be very slow, and it is likely that MMS-compatible devices will not be widely accepted by consumers until MMS users can reliably send MMS messages to a large number of recipients. The problem, of course, is that the large number of potential MMS recipients will not exist until MMS-compatible devices have already been widely accepted by consumers.
The foregoing technologies have introduced the convenience of voice messaging to large numbers of users. However, the foregoing techniques do not allow the sender to send an audio portion of an MMS-based message to a recipient regardless of the communication capabilities of the receiving device.